Screen dreams: Local reverend keeps shopping movie script

Thursday

Feb 25, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 25, 2010 at 10:29 AM

Although she knows now that she did not win the recent screenplay contest she entered, Rev. Sarah Brockmann, the rector at Trinity Church in Rockland, said she will keep pressing for success with her script titled, “Reading, PA.”

“I’ll keep trying to enter it in other contests,” Brockmann said. “The bottom line is that when you write a screenplay, the chances are miniscule that it will be made, never mind looked at.”

Even though “Reading, PA” was not one of the top three scripts looked at in the most recent contest, it did make the top 12. It was not clear how many scripts were entered.

Seth Jacobson

Although she knows now that she did not win the recent screenplay contest she entered, Rev. Sarah Brockmann, the rector at Trinity Church in Rockland, said she will keep pressing for success with her script titled, “Reading, PA.”

“I’ll keep trying to enter it in other contests,” Brockmann said. “The bottom line is that when you write a screenplay, the chances are miniscule that it will be made, never mind looked at.”

Even though “Reading, PA” was not one of the top three scripts looked at in the most recent contest, it did make the top 12. It was not clear how many scripts were entered.

The recent contest was sponsored by The Movieguide, a publication of Good News Communications, Inc. and the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry. It is an international non-profit organization dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”

The contest offered $50,000 in prizes for spiritually uplifting screenplays by first-time and beginning screenwriters.

The top three scripts were honored Tuesday in Beverly Hills.

Brockmann said she has written four complete screenplays including “Reading, PA,” two of which she said she thinks “will never see the light of day.”

The third one she wrote she describes as “a fun, family-based action film.” She added she hopes to see that one made one day.

Finally, there’s “Reading, PA,” a script she said “is an edgy, modern retelling of “The Passion” through new characters.

She said the main character, a young woman, is “someone carrying guilt for a sin she believes she committed.” Brockmann explained the character blames herself for an incident where her father gravely injures her sister.

“Throughout the story, she is trying to relieve this guilt, and through that, she renews the lives of several of those around her,” Brockmann said. “And she makes a big sacrifice at the end.”

Brockmann said the actual city of Reading, PA, is a place she now loves.

“For years—way before I wrote the script—my husband and I always found ourselves driving through Reading, PA,” she said, noting when she used to live in Maryland, she traveled quite a bit.

“Every time I drove by that city, I looked at it and knew it was holding onto a story,” she said. “I didn’t know what the story was at that time, but I knew there was a story in there somewhere. I just had to wait for it to reveal itself.”

Three or four years ago, the story did reveal itself when Brockmann ventured into the city and drove around. She said the city was very industrial until she drove up a hill and all of a sudden, she was “in the middle of nothingness,” overlooking the industrial sights of the city.

“The scenes that I had in my head for the script started coming to life,” she said. “Suddenly, everything was real.”

And then the script was written, and since then, Brockmann has been sending it around and entering it in different contests around the country.

She plans on keeping that going.

“We’ll see what happens,” she said.

Brockmann started writing scripts when she was in sixth grade.

“I used to watch the Hardy Boys TV show and I was in love with Shawn Cassidy,” she said, noting Cassidy played one of the Hardy brothers. “For my first script, I wrote a Hardy Boys episode.”

She remembers in eighth grade, she scripted a Christmas play, even though her teacher said it wouldn’t be performed.

“We put it on anyway,” she said.

Besides being an aspiring screenwriter, Brockmann keeps herself busy with the activities going on at Trinity Church. She was installed as the rector in the fall.

She said she’s going to keep writing, as she has plenty to say.

“I have a file totally full of stories I haven’t written yet,” she said. “I don’t think writer’s block will ever be an issue for me.”